U.S. housing markets are hot again after a slump. But mega-mansion prices have been on an upward trajectory for awhile."Over the course of the last few years, we have seen a definite shift higher in pricing at the very top of the market," said Rick Goodman, publisher of Ultimate Homes.

"Billionaires -- from the U.S., China, Russia and elsewhere -- are buying real estate in this country, and those with trophy properties to sell are feeling more bullish about asking prices than ever before." It's no surprise, then, that a property just hit the market with the highest asking price in U.S. history: Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, Conn., was listed for a whopping $190 million.

]]>home buyinghomebuying tipsluxury real estateBusiness Insider2013-08-28T09:00:00 00:00Lose a Home Over a $6 Tax Bill? Why It Could Happen to Youhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/08/21/lose-a-home-over-a-6-tax-bill-why-it-could-happen-to-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/08/21/lose-a-home-over-a-6-tax-bill-why-it-could-happen-to-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/08/21/lose-a-home-over-a-6-tax-bill-why-it-could-happen-to-you/#commentsFiled under: News,Foreclosures

Not all is lost for a Pennsylvania woman who lost her $280,000 home over an unpaid $6 interest charge. A Beaver County appeals court has vacated a ruling in a case against homeowner Eileen Battisti, saying the trial court acted too hastily when it denied Battisti a proper hearing to prevent her home (pictured above) from being sold at auction two years ago.

"This was particularly inappropriate because the outstanding liability was small and the value of the home was far greater than the amount paid by (the) purchaser," Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote for the court.

No kidding. Battisti (pictured at left) owed just $6.30 in unpaid interest charges on a 2009 tax bill, which by 2011 had grown to $235 with interest. She claimed she didn't know about the past due charge until she was notified that her home was about to be auctioned off by the county. By then it was too late, and the house was sold for $116,000 to S.P. Lewis of Imperial.

With the court's ruling this week, she's lucky to have another shot at saving her home.

Unfortunately, cases like Battisti's are not uncommon, as state and municipal tax offices scramble to fill budget holes by aggressively pursuing unpaid property taxes -- even if it means auctioning off homes over a few bucks.

As a result, annual tax lien sales have topped $15 billion per year, according to a report released by the National Consumer Law Center last year.

For investors, tax lien sales are nothing less than a gold mine. Big purchasers -- for example, debt collectors or large retail banks - can snap up the properties at deeply discounted rates and then sell them at a ridiculous profit.

"Homeowners throughout the nation, particularly the elderly and people with cognitive challenges, have lost or stand to lose family homes along with long-term equity which may represent their sole savings and security for retirement," NCLC Attorney John Rao previously told BI.

Irvine, Calif., was the safest city in the country for the ninth consecutive year. The city of just more than 200,000 has one of the country's top-ranked school systems, a median household income well above the national average, and a crime prevention method that includes keeping a thorough record of violence.

Fifteen of the 20 safest cities are located in the Southwest, including six in California. Conversely, on our list of the 25 most dangerous cities, the only two Southwestern cities were in California.

Clearly there's a geographic trend here. It should be noted, however, that different crime reporting policies among police departments may make some cities appear safer or more dangerous than they really are.

Neighboring cities Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, Va., are the only two on the list with murder rates equal to or above the national average. However, rape and robbery rates that are substantially below the national average compensate for this difference.

El Paso, Texas, one of the safest cities, is located directly across the Mexico-U.S. border from Juarez, Mexico, one of the world's most violent cities. Officials there say that drug cartels keep their base of operations in Mexico to avoid encounters with U.S. law enforcement.

It also turns out that safety has its trade-offs: four of the safest cities (Chula Vista, Calif., Hialeah, Fla., Chandler, Ariz., and Henderson, Nev.) also appear on Forbes's list of the 10 most boring cities in America.

Real estate investors are getting back in the flipping game, netting an average gross profit of nearly $20,000 on single family home flips in the first half of 2013. Home flips are up 19 percent from a year ago and 74 percent from the first half of 2011, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

"While flipping continues to be profitable in most markets, particularly those where the home price recovery is still nascent and a recent rebound in foreclosure activity allows investors to find distressed inventory at a discount, home flipping is tapering off in markets where fewer of those distressed bargains are available," Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in the statement.

"Flipping was on the rise in more than two-thirds of the markets, including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and several Florida metros," he said. The average flipper in the following 15 metro areas earned 10 percent to 82 percent flipping their homes.

While there's been a trend of more and more people moving to cities, the suburbs still remain incredibly popular. But some suburbs are more popular than others. Real estate company Coldwell Banker recently released their list of the Top Booming Suburbs In America as part of their "Best Places to Live" series.

They evaluated 1,500 suburbs and looked at a variety of factors such as employment growth, community safety, proximity to good schools, commute time, and access to suburban staples such as grocery stores and banks.

Four of the top 10 are suburbs of Seattle, and not a single northeastern suburb made the top 10. Scores were calculated out of 1,000.

With the real estate market as shaky as it is, homeowners can't afford to deal with more problems. And yet there's always something that pops up -- whether its noisy neighbors or an unfortunately placed sinkhole. We've rounded up some of the biggest threats to the value of a home.

Economists have been cranking up their home price expectations. Some expect home prices to rise 8 percent in 2013. Housing pundit Ivy Zelman has said we're in "nirvana" for housing. But recently we've seen some signs that the recovery is slowing down.

First, building permits have declined since January. And though housing starts have come in strong, up 7 percent in March, this was driven by a 31 percent rise in multifamily starts. Single family starts were down 4.8 percent. Bank of America's Michelle Meyer has previously pointed out that in this recovery multifamily rentals are creating a larger part of the housing stock.

Third, homebuilders were frustrated about difficulties in "obtaining construction credit and overly restrictive mortgage lending rules," according to NAHB chairman Rick Judson. Meanwhile, Paul Diggle at Capital Economics previously warned that "capacity constraints in lenders' mortgage departments are one of the few remaining bottlenecks in the housing recovery."

"Lenders' need to manage the level of mortgage applications given their constrained processing capacity is one explanation for why mortgage rates are at record highs relative to MBS yields and credit scoring criteria are very strict. All of this has helped contribute to the marginal role being played by mortgage-dependent buyers in the housing recovery."

Certain housing markets have recovered well and economists are getting increasingly bullish about the national housing recovery. But housing is a local story, and many continue to suffer from an extremely high foreclosure rate.

"Although the overall national foreclosure trend continues to head lower, late-blooming foreclosures are bolting higher in some local markets where aggressive foreclosure prevention efforts in previous years are wearing off," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in a press release. We drew on RealtyTrac's report to highlight the 14 metros with the highest foreclosure rate.

Note: The metros are ranked by foreclosure rate i.e. 1 in every X homes received a foreclosure filing. We picked the 14 metros with the highest foreclosure rate from all the metros measured by RealtyTrac.

]]>cities with highest foreclosure ratescities with most foreclosuresforeclosureshousing recoveryBusiness Insider2013-04-12T16:15:00 00:0012 States With the Most Underwater Mortgageshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/03/25/states-most-underwater-mortgages/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/03/25/states-most-underwater-mortgages/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/03/25/states-most-underwater-mortgages/#commentsFiled under: News

About 1.7 million homeowners moved to positive equity in 2012, and the trend should continue into 2013. But some parts of the country will recover faster than others. Using CoreLogic data, we ranked the 12 states that had the most underwater mortgages as a percentage of all mortgages, i.e. negative equity share.

Note: Loan-to-Value ratio is a measure used by financial institutions to gauge risk before approving a mortgage. The higher the LTV ratio, the higher the risk and the more expensive the loan.

Buildings could win in one of two ways: 1) Jury Award - chosen by an international panel of over 200 architects, cultural leaders and people who hire architects, or 2) Popular Award - a public vote with people from over 100 countries. The winners are unique designs from every corner of the planet. We're highlighting some of our favorites here; click over to Architizer to see the full collection of winners.

This week the Vatican's papal conclave began the process of choosing the next spiritual leader of 1.18 billion Catholics worldwide. White smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Wednesday, indicating a new pope was elected. The conclave voted amid Michelangelo's imposing frescoes imagining the beginning and the end of the world.

The majority of the 108-acre country (Vatican City is the world's smallest independent state) -- including towers, apartments, restoration labs, tombs and secret archives -- is off-limits to people without a Vatican City passport. For a rare look inside the Holy See, we pulled up exclusive videos by National Geographic and History Channel.

Many analysts agree that home prices have bottomed out. According to the latest data from Fiserv Case-Shiller, National home prices are expected to rise 3.3 percent in the next five years. Of course, there will be many cities that see home prices lag behind the rest of the country.

We drew on the Fiserv Case-Shiller data to identify the 15 worst housing markets in the U.S.
The bottom 15 cities are ranked by the projected annualized change in home prices between Q3 2012 and Q3 2017. We also included the median home price, median household income, unemployment rate, and the change in home prices since their peak, to offer a broader view of the local economy and housing market.

Note: The median family income and home price is for Q3 2012. Unemployment data is as of December 2012, and population data for the metros is for 2011.

China's notorious ghost cities are a disaster waiting to happen, according to a new report from CBS News' "60 Minutes." Take it from the CEO of Vanke, the country's largest residential real estate developer, who tells the news program that developers are deep in debt, projects are being abandoned, and things could get ugly fast. The nightmare scenario could be like America's housing crash but worse.

"It's like walking into a forest of skyscrapers, but they're all empty," financial analyst Gillem Tulloch said of another ghost city, Chenggong. We're taking this occasion to check with satellite imagery on China's most famous empty developments. Of course things may be better than they seem. Yale's Stephen Roach argues that China is experiencing "the greatest urbanization story the world has ever seen," and that these ghost cities will soon become "thriving metropolitan areas."

The top 15 cities are ranked by the projected annualized change in home prices between the third quarter of 2012 and the third quarter of 2017. We also included the median home price, median household income, unemployment rate, and the change in home prices since their peak to offer a broader view of the local economy and housing market.

Note: The median family income and home price is for the third quarter of 2012. Unemployment data is as of December 2012, and population data for the metros is for 2011.

The Hamptons have always been a hot summer rental market. But this year, the biggest checks are being written earlier than ever, New York's Daily News reports. One developer, who rented a home to Jay-Z and Beyonce (pictured above) last August for $400,000, has already turned down a $400,000 offer for a similar home this year. And homes that regularly lease for $85,000 a month or more are moving quickly.

It's not just the lure of the beaches, A-Listers and parties that are driving the mad dash, according to Sheftell. One reason for the rush of early offers is that there are fewer homes for sale out east. This means that people who want to summer in the Hamptons have to rent, which pushes rental prices sky-high.

Wealthy renters also want to minimize the hassle and stress of finding the perfect summer home, and the earlier they start their search, the more options that are available to them. The bottom line: if you want to rent a house in the Hamptons this summer, start looking now and expect to shell out. And just so you know what the Hamptons has to offer, check out the $400,000 rental Beyonce and Jay-Z scooped up last August in the gallery below.

Zurich sank from No. 1 to No. 7 on the list, declining a whopping 39 percentage points from last year due to a weakening Swiss franc. Geneva also didn't fare well, seeing a steep decline from a No. 3 ranking in 2012 to barely making the list at No. 10 this year. The survey calculates cost of living based on prices for products and services, including food, clothing, rent and transportation. Each cost-of-living index is set in relation to New York's, which is fixed at a base of 100.

What New York City was in the 1900s, London was in the 1800s, Constantinople was in the 600s, and so forth, back to Jericho in 7000 BC. They were the largest cities in the world, and arguably the epicenters of human civilization. These cities led mankind to new heights of culture and commerce -- though in the end each of them was surpassed and some of them destroyed.

Historians Tertius Chandler, Gerald Fox and George Modelski identified the largest cities throughout history through painstaking study of household data, agricultural commerce, church records, fortification sizes, food distribution, loss of life in a disaster, and more. We have parsed their work in the following slides.

It seems that the housing market is slowly but surely rebounding in America. Existing home sales and asking prices have crept up, and analysts report decreasing delinquencies and foreclosure filings. As a result, some of the most sought-after neighborhoods in the U.S. are beginning to see high listing prices and a shrinking inventory.

"The results surprised us," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "The hottest neighborhoods aren't the well-known bastions of privilege. They're once-gritty urban areas and far-flung suburbs with school districts on the rise."

Overwhelmingly, California neighborhoods dominated the list, a trend Kelman chalks up to the state's improving economy and the lure of a thriving tech scene.

"Across the state, there are far more buyers than sellers, and we see bidding wars on almost every reasonably priced listing in Silicon Valley and Orange County," he told BI. "It's probably also true that what happens to America happens first in California: The real estate bubble burst in California first, so buyers there have been waiting longer to make their move than just about anywhere else."

%Gallery-176631%Methodology: This ranking was based on data from December 2011-2012 for housing markets in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Southern California, and Washington DC-Baltimore. Redfin highlighted the top three neighborhoods in each metro area, then whittled the list down from 48 to round out its top 10. See the full ranking here.

When it comes to placing blame on mortgage lenders, regulators or consumers for 2008's crippling housing crisis, it's fair to say each played a role. Yes, banks issued millions of mortgage loans that homebuyers couldn't afford, targeted minorities for subprime loans, and made the entire lending experience a muddled, confusing mess. And yes, federal regulations made it possible for them to do so. But, as some consumer critics argue, it wasn't as if borrowers were nailed down to a chair and forced to sign the dotted line.

In the end, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has come out on the side of the consumer. On Wednesday, the agency issued a new set of regulations that will put the onus on lenders to decide whether homebuyers are worthy of a loan.

"When consumers sit down at the closing table, they shouldn't be set up to fail with mortgages they can't afford," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. "Our Ability-to-Repay rule protects borrowers from the kinds of risky lending practices that resulted in so many families losing their homes. This common-sense rule ensures responsible borrowers get responsible loans."

Here's what the new rule entails:

The End of Quick Sale Loans

In the past, lenders could get away with offering quickie low- or no-doc loans (they required few financial documents, if any, from the borrower and then could sell off the risky loans to investors). With the new rule, lenders must do a proper financial background. That means sizing up borrowers' employment status; income and assets; current debt obligations; credit history; monthly payments on the mortgage; monthly payments on any other mortgages on the same property; and monthly payments for mortgage-related obligations.

Risky Borrowers Will Have a Harder Time Securing a Loan

The lender must prove the borrower has "sufficient assets" to pay back the loan eventually. According to the CFPB, that's determined by calculating debt-to-income ratio (total monthly debt divided by monthly income).

No More "Teaser Rates" to Suck Borrowers In

Lenders love to roll out juicy low introductory rates on mortgages to lure borrowers in, but under the new rule, they must calculate a borrower's ability to repay his loan based on the true mortgage rate -- including both the principal and the interest over the long-term life of the loan.

The agency will likely make exceptions for nonprofit lenders who work specifically with low- and middle-income borrowers.

The fact that housing has become unbelievably expensive in China is not new news by any stretch of the imagination, and residents of Beijing have been living in much smaller spaces for years now. But due to severe overcrowding and the need for sustainable residences, it seems the tricycle house could be an innovative -- though not necessarily comfortable -- solution.